Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on Employment Cost Index data for June 2021

This page provides further information on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for the June 2021 Employment Cost Index news release.

Collection mode

The ECI data are collected by BLS field economists contacting establishment respondents. Respondents may provide information through personal visits, phone, email, electronic file transmission, fax, and mail. Field economists have discontinued personal visits and are relying on the other collection methods at this time.

Response rates

Nonresponse may increase because of difficulty reaching survey respondents or selected jobs having no workers for the reference period. See the historical response rates. Response rates were comparable in June 2021 to the March 2021 release.

Table 1. Response rates for usable data eligible for collection
Compensation component Dec 2019 Mar 2020 Jun 2020 Sep 2020 Dec 2020 Mar 2021 Jun 2021

Wages and salaries

86.0% 79.5% 80.0% 81.2% 81.3% 82.4% 81.8%

Benefits

95.3% 95.9% 95.8% 95.3% 95.6% 96.1% 95.0%

Measures of reliability

BLS publishes measures of reliability along with not seasonally adjusted 3-month and 12-month percent changes. See Technical Information about Standard Errors for Employment Cost Index Estimates and the database query tools. The percentage of standard errors (3-month percent change) less than or equal to 0.3 are shown below.

Table 2. Percentage of standard errors (3-month percent change) less than or equal to 0.3
Compensation component Dec 2019 Mar 2020 Jun 2020 Sep 2020 Dec 2020 Mar 2021 Jun 2021

Total compensation

99.2% 89.4% 84.8% 96.2% 96.2% 89.4% 88.6%

Wages and salaries

97.7% 87.1% 79.5% 91.7% 93.9% 84.1% 84.1%

Benefits

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 92.9% 100.0%

Last Modified Date: July 30, 2021